OK, it’s time to embarass Matt if I can. A day I’ll never forget was the day Matt told me he was going to go on a mission. Hopefully, someday, Matt will write his own story and fill in the details, but I remember sitting in the chapel of the Rochester Ward. We were listening to a young man (don’t remember who) who had just returned from his mission. During the talk, Matt, who was sitting next to me, leaned over and told me he thought he would go on a mission. I was stunned and didn’t know what to say. I croaked out a “When?” and he said as soon as he could. What I wanted to do was jump up and cheer, but I kept my cool and we started to work on his leaving. As you all know, he spent two years in the Vancouver, British Columbia Mission. I was very proud to have a son on a mission. I was proud that he himself decided to go, because it wasn’t a sure thing.
What was amazing about the mission is he really didn’t have much money saved for it. We were always broke as a family and I worried that we wouldn’t be able to pay for it. I think it ran just over $300 a month. I would deliver a check to the bishop each month and somehow, that money got to Matt to support him. We always made that payment. I don’t think we were ever late with it. The money was always there and nothing else really suffered because of it. When he returned home, you’d think we could now have an extra $300 to pay down bills or something, but nothing really changed. We were broke before the mission, we were broke during the mission, except that we paid one extra check and we were broke after the mission. Strange isn’t it. They say the Lord provides when you have a worthy cause and I guess that is true.
Matt got back from his mission, he was much the same, but a lot different. He had turned into a man, didn’t listen to heavy metal music anymore (at least for awhile) and had a testimony of the gospel. I think (and I hope he agrees) that going on a mission was a deciding point in his life. After that he wanted to go into a field where he could help people and that is what he did. We all know where that has taken him.
I hope he knows just how proud we all are of him.
Dad